For Immediate Release:
PORTLAND, OR - November 20, 2015
Wangechi Mutu: The Hybrid Human
January 19, 2016 – March 12, 2016
PNCA is proud to present Wangechi Mutu: The Hybrid Human in the 511 Gallery at the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design from January 19 through March 12, 2016. The Hybrid Human builds upon PNCA’s working relationship with the Jordan D. Schnitzer Family Foundation Collection. This will be Wangechi Mutu’s first solo exhibition in the Pacific Northwest and will be the inaugural exhibition in the annual Jordan D. Schnitzer Exhibition and Visiting Artist Series.
Wangechi Mutu is a trained sculptor and studied anthropology but first came to prominence through her collage works, which fuse a diversity of sources culled from the image gluttony of late 20th century and early 21st century life. Mutu draws from the aesthetics of traditional ritual arts, science fiction, and Afrofuturistic funkdaleia. She makes use of materials from 19th century prints, fashion magazines, scientific periodicals, pornography, and ethnographic photographs to explore the contradictions of female and cultural identity and makes reference to colonial history, contemporary African politics, and the representation of female in media. She combines her sourced materials with ink, paint, and reflective material to realize lusciously intricate full figure works and portraiture. Since the late 1990’s Mutu’s artworks have been keenly focused on the creation of surrealist characters that are hauntingly grotesque and seductive while they critique systems of power and patriarchy, both political and aesthetic.
The Hybrid Human brings together several pieces, including complete sets of two series, Histology of the Different Classes of Uterine Tumors from 2006, and The Original Nine Daughters, 2012. In Histology of the Different Classes of Uterine Tumors, Mutu builds upon the pages of a Victorian medical diagram to create portraits and masks that are powerfully alluring in their futuristic aura and at times frightful with a primordial feel.
The Jordan D. Schnitzer Exhibition and Visiting Artist Series will present an annual curated exhibition from the dynamic and expansive collection over 9,000 contemporary prints of the Jordan D. Schnitzer Family Foundation to the 511 Gallery at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. The series will bring an invited artist in connection to the exhibition to engage with PNCA students, faculty, and the public through lectures, studio visits, and collaborations with the Print Media department. In addition to the Exhibition and Visiting Artist Series, selections from the Collection will be lent to the PNCA Object Library to be studied by students and faculty on a regular rotating basis.
Wangechi Mutu will present an artist’s talk on March 10, 2016, at 6:30pm at PNCA's Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design.
This exhibition of prints and collage works lead into the upcoming Southern Graphics Council International Conference in March and April 2016 taking place in Portland, Oregon. Wangechi Mutu: The Hybrid Human is co-presented with the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation and PNCA’s MFA Print Media and MFA Visual Studies Departments.